2. Outline for our Documentary
For our documentary, we are going to be looking into teenage suicide. In our
documentary, we will be exploring what drives people to suicide (or
attempting suicide) and how people can get help if they need it. We will
include stories of a person that committed suicide (being re-enacted) and a
person that attempted suicide but are now glad they are still alive. We want
to use these stories to give hope and raise awareness and understanding of
issues relating to suicide and mental health and inform people that they are
never alone and there is always someone willing to help them if they are ever
feeling depressed or suicidal.
3. Genre and format
Genre: Educational.
The genre of our documentary will be educational. This is because we are aiming
our documentary at teenagers, so therefore the people who would watch our
documentary would be at school or college. Additionally, it would be classed as
educational due to the fact that our documentary will be stating facts and figures
about suicide and addressing issues such as bullying and informing people why
suicide is not the way to go and they can get help.
Format: Expository and interactive.
We would like to present our documentary in the form of a expository or
interactive documentary as we feel that it would cover elements of both. This is
because we will include voice over's throughout our documentary in order to speak
directly to the viewer to try and persuade them that suicide isn't the way to go,
but we will also be covering aspects of interactive documentary as we will include
interviews with people that have attempted suicide.
4. Target audience
Our target audience is primarily aimed at a teenage demographic (13-20). This is
because the main focus in our documentary is to raise awareness and
understanding of issues relating to suicide towards teenagers. Both of the stories
in our documentary will be from a teenagers perspective so therefore a
teenager will be able to connect with them.
Our secondary target audience for our documentary is aimed at everyone else,
and anyone who can relate to the topic of suicide. It is also aimed at anyone
who has ever felt or is feeling suicidal or depressed and informing them where
they can get help if they don't know who to turn to.
5. Aim of the documentary
The aim of our documentary is to raise awareness about suicide and inform people
about the effects and consequences it has on people and the families that have to
deal with it.
By producing a documentary based on suicide we hope to inform people on the
facts of suicide as well as teaching them that the conceptions of people who
commit suicide are wrong and teach them the true facts.
7. People we will need for the production
The person who committed suicide who will be telling the story of why they
chose to take their life. (re- enacted)
The bullies – College students.
Interviewer for the person who attempted suicide.
Interviewee- the person who attempted suicide.
A narrator.
The film crew.
8. Sample interview questions
What lead you to want to commit suicide?
Why did you think suicide was the only answer?
How were you going to do it, and why?
Did you tell anyone or did anyone know?
What made you not do it again?
Did you have people to support you after it happened?
Are you glad it didn’t work?
Would you change your past if you had the choice and why?
9. Equipment, props and Costumes
Equipment: Camera, Tripod, Voice recorder, Microphone to pick up sound on
top of the camera.
Props: Fake blood, Scissors.
Costumes: Black clothing for the interviewee (as want to be kept anonymous),
black hoodie for the re-enactment of the person that comitted suicide (to be
kept anonymous) and everyday clothing for the interviewers, bullies and
narrator.
10. Proposed budget
We will be keeping our production low- budget. All of our locations are in
walking distance so we wont have to pay anything for transport. The fake
blood and scissors will be provided to us by the college s therefore, we wont
have to pay anything for our documentary.
